Sunday, May 6, 2007

Hello Again everyone,it's time for some more pictures and stories.I'm in Buenos Aires now for quite a while, working on a project which I'll share with you in a while. i''ll go back 2 months in time to the beginning of my travels in South Argentina, Patagonia.

.................::::::::Calafate & The Glaciers :::::::..................Starting in Calafate, a touristy town with everything that implies from that. Lots of Gringos (including me), nice restaurants and tourist shops. Nothing to write home about. i went to see the falling glacier, Perito Moreno, which was quite a spectacular. Took a boat ride with someother tourists friends i met in the hostel. A very stressed Swiss girl named Franchesca, an American kid named Ryan, and a Liverpool bloke called Tom. A day later we hired a car and toured around the area. nice views and all. The Swiss girl got on our nerves real quick, mostly for her urge to be in time all the time and plan everything in advance. Me and Ryan, a Jewish boy from Florida decided to keep going to our next destination together, trekking in Torres Del Paine, Chile ; one of the most busiest Treks in South America. Tom went to Cuba, and we headed on to Chile.here is a photo gallery with more photos:http://picasaweb.google.com/eilonpaz/CalafateTheGlaciers

......:::: Torres Del Paine Park, Chile ::::......

we planed to do the traditional 5 days trek called the "W" , named for its figure on the map.We rented all the equipment in town, a tent, good sleeping bags, cooking stove and a rain jacket. bought food for 5 to 6 days. the bags were heavy as hell, but couldn't give away the eating standards we were accustomed to. i think 80 percent of the weight was food.

i was really happy to start having some sport in my life, after gaining 6 kilos with my time with papa.

first day was hard and long. the body was not ready for the heavy bags and the terrain was quite hard. lots of ups & downs. by the end of the day, we were welcomed by a typical Patagonian wind & rain which blew away our spirits. we reached the first camp soaked to bone and exhausted. For 3 days we didn't have any sun and the view was blocked by the heavy clouds and fog. walking around the Torres (towers), we could only see a blurry image of them. The next days were much easier and the weather was getting better. we met another Israeli couple on the road and kept going with them for another 3 days. in the 3rd day the sun came out eventually, and we took our time easily, enjoying the warmth and the views. the bags as well were getting lighter and our body had adjusted to the hard walking every day. On the 4th day we arrived to "Campamento Torres " which is the base to climb to the Torres. arriving there was like coming back home, and for Ryan, it was like a Jewish teenager camp in Israel. 30 Tents in the small camping ground inside the Forest. 27 of them were Israeli, and of course you could imagine the scene. Ehud Banai was playing in surround sound over and over again, and the Forest looked like a trance party in "Ya'ar Benshemen".we woke up very early in the morning to see the toresses. a hard one hour climb of 1100 meters. the look of it was amazing. the red colors of the mountains are real just like in the postcards :))) even better.

The following day Ryan decided to quit since he had only few days left in South America.i kept going beyond the 5 days of the "W" route, and make a route around the mountains which will last 8 days totally. i am so grateful for that decision, since not a lot of people do that route,i was able to feel just a little bit outside from the heavy tourist trail. The view changed dramatically every day, and also the human company. i started waking alone, with no partner to talk to or share my thoughts. i have to say that this also was a great change allowing me to observe and enjoy my surroundings in a deeper way. I walked for 2 days by myself, meeting people only at the camp sites. great experience which i will do again in the future. after 2 days i met an Irish guy named Evan and we walked together for the rest of the trek. he is a travel writer who's tring to make a living from traveling. we shared some thoughts and ideas and perhaps we'll make some articles together in the future.

In the 7th day i started a hard walking and climbing day to the "pass" of the Grey glacier. me and Evan walked this hard day in a pretty good weather to arrive to the highlight of this trek, the privilege to see a glacier from above, which was one of the most spectacular scenes i have ever seen. A frozen and quiet see with deep blueish colors. we sat there, in the freezing wind for an hour, admiring this beautiful scene.the 1000 meters decent was viciously steep with steps high as 1/2 a meter. my knees didn't recover this and it is a reminder for me that I'm not 21 years old in my trip after the army.I started this trek with a heavy touristy feel and finished it with a great satisfying feeling.

Hey ma brother,Great reading your stuff and looking at the pictures. I could just imagine your face coming down glacier gray - "מה יהיה עם הקרחון הזה!" ("what will be" with this glacier!!!)we missed you at the annual yom-hatzmaut barbeque, the tequila and left over meat was a tell tale you weren't there.keep on the good work, gali raanan lisa and myself are flying to morroco in a couple of days, once I hook up to the net down there I'll send you another blog comment.

Man, I find myself thinking about your blog, your pictures, your south america on a bike trip... you fulfill the dream of many people...

Your Blog - I love it! Happy to see new chapter when I check it.... One more thing - there is a big production TV show called 'survival' which you are probably familiar with. So, now there is going to be the Israeli 'Survival' show, and guess what? It is going to be in dominican republic. maybe they need photographer over there....